Song Review: The Solutions – All That You Want

When SM Station Season 2 was announced earlier this year, it was promised to feature collaborations from foreign artists and folks who were not part of SM’s roster. But with All That You Want, I struggle to find how exactly the song connects to SMent. The Solutions aren’t an SM group, and I don’t see any SM composers listed in the song’s credits. Maybe the music video was an SM production?

Whatever the case, I’m delighted that Korea’s leading agency is shining a spotlight on this incredibly underrated band. Over the past few years, The Solutions have quietly crept up to become my favorite just-outside-the-mainstream k-pop rock band. Last year, they gave us the beautifully hypnotic Ticket To The Moon and followed it up with the giddy 80’s pop of Beautiful. All That You Want continues this run of quality material, maintaining and refining the group’s hooky sound.

All That You Want is a stomping throwback to 90’s power pop, driven by a sticky rhythm guitar riff and gorgeous, dripping-with-charisma vocal performance by frontman Sol. The song alternates between its lively verses and a more fists-in-the-air chant of a chorus. It’s a relatively simple structure, made more powerful by its spot-on arrangement. From the powerful layering of vocals that drive the hook to the scuzzy synth that briefly takes over to underline the soaring bridge, the song’s production is an impressive example of taking a plain melody and shooting it into the stratosphere. In a perfect world, Korea would sit up and take notice. This is every bit as polished as a CNBLUE or FTIsland.